Does anyone know if you have to have substantial volunteer experience to enter the peacecorps?
My daughter is going through the process right now.
She had some volunteer experience, but I wouldn’t call it extensive: a few days of volunteer service a year, a little Habitat for Humanity, and some time showing people around the college.
Her job resume is also a bit thin. But it’s beginning to look like she’ll be accepted, so a lack of serious experience is not necessarily a disqualification.
It certainly isn’t necessary, but they get lots of applications in proportion to the number of spots they have available, so it would improve your chances.
It’s not necessary. My wife was in the Peace Corps she maintains that the number one qualification is the willingness to put up with the byzantine application process.
Skills are more important than volunteer experience. If you have experience (or education) in a valuable area, that will carry more weight than volunteer time in an area that the Peace Corps doesn’t do.
That you served food at a homeless shelter carries less weight than if you can repair a tractor or give an injection.
I was in the Peace Corps, and after I returned, I worked with recruitment.
Both Wooden Taco and Madmonk are correct.
The application procees is like an obsticle course that you can only get through if you are seriously confused or mildly insane (both help in your service too).
As Taco said, the more stuff you have done, including volunteering, athletics, extra-curricular activities, etc, the better the chances you have of getting the position (everything else being equal)…